If you have your health, you have everything
is something that's said to cheer you up
when you come home early and find your lover
arched over a stranger in a scarlet thong.
Or it could be you lose your job at Happy Nails
because you can't stop smudging the stars
on those ten teeny American flags.
I don't begrudge you your extravagant vitality.
May it blossom like a cherry tree. May the petals
of your cardiovascular excellence
and the accordion polka of your lungs
sweeten the mornings of your loneliness.
But for the ill, for you with nerves that fire
like a rusted-out burner on an old barbecue,
with bones brittle as spun sugar,
with a migraine hammering like a blacksmith
in the flaming forge of your skull,
may you be spared from friends who say,
God doesn't give you more than you can handle
and ask what gifts being sick has brought you.
May they just keep their mouths shut
and give you French chocolates and daffodils
and maybe a small, original Matisse,
say, Open Window, Collioure, so you can look out
at the boats floating on the dappled pink water.
"French Chocolates" by Ellen Bass from Like a Beggar. © Copper Canyon Press, 2014. Reprinted with permission.
Crowspeak
Friday, May 23, 2014
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Teddy Roosevelt
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives
valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because
there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually
strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great
devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
Wholehearted
Brene
Brown's Guide To Wholehearted Living
1.
Cultivate Authenticity – Let go of what people think about you
2.
Cultivate Self-Compassion – Let go of perfectionism
3.
Cultivate a Resilient Spirit – Let go of numbing and powerlessness
4.
Cultivate Gratitude and Joy – Let go of scarcity
5.
Cultivate Intuition and Trusting Faith – Let go of the need for
certainty
6.
Cultivate Creativity – Let go of comparison
7.
Cultivate Play and Rest – Let go of exhaustion as a status symbol
and productivity as self-worth
8.
Cultivate Calm and Stillness – Let go of anxiety as a lifestyle
9.
Cultivate Meaningful Work – Let go of self-doubt and “supposed
to”
10.
Cultivate Laughter, Song, and Dance – Let go of being cool and
“always in control”
Friday, May 2, 2014
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Sebastion Junger's War
I highly recommend this book. It was the foundation for Junger and Tim Hetherington's exquisite documentary Restrepo.
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